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Troublemakers
The Galloway and Galloway company had supplied America with everything from bandages to shaving cream, but then they had decided to try something different… human genetic manipulation. Christine Helvin and Zach Helvin (code–referenced XL and Rebound), Parker Matthews (code–referenced Blur), and Jane Ngo (code–referenced Calamity Jane) were the fruits of that experiment. Could these troublemakers with amazing powers handle the everyday trials and tribulations of teenhood? Could their parents handle it? Puberty was never like this. The Age of Innocence Sneaking to the roof of the G&G building, Christine enhanced Zach’s gravimetric biofield with her excel biofield to make him hover. As Parker took one step to let Zach’s field envelop him too, Barton Fein and Ken Galloway burst through the door and startled Christine, who lost her hold over Zach. Falling down, Zach bounced off the ground back to the roof, where Fein reprimanded them. Just then, Jack Willoughby, a maintenance manager who the kids affectingly called Uncle Jack, took responsibility for letting them go to the roof. Later that day, Christine told Zach that due to her biofield she had realized that Uncle Jack was sad, but he told her that since she was going to a real school a week later she should worry about herself. Going inside Zeus: Control, Zach asked his parents when he could see Jane, who had been in isolation for a month. As Huang Ngo told Zach that Jane’s inability to control her Chaos Field made her a threat to herself and others, Zach asked him to say hi to her and left. Meanwhile, Parker and his mom, Blake Anderson, talked about how G&G’s reluctance to let the public become aware of their existence meant that they had to keep their troublemaking inside the facility. That evening, Christine asked her parents why Uncle Jack was sad, but they avoided her questions. Later that night, Parker, Zach, and Christine snuck into Zeus: Control, where Parker broke into the database and they learned that Jack’s son and grandchildren had died in an airplane crash on their way to visit him. Breaking out of G&G, the kids went to Jack’s house, where Christine used her Excel–field to help Parker and Zach create solid images of Jack’s son and grandchildren so he could say goodbye. If At First… After a G&G satellite registered an anomalous energy signal emanating from a deep cavern in Indochina, Zeus: Control sent the Troublemakers and TERU to investigate. In a bad mood after an incident in school, Christine lashed out at Zach and Parker as they made their way down a tunnel that led them to a cavern where they found a cocoon with a man inside it. As Christine reached out and touched the cocoon, an explosion released Crunchtime, who sent the kids to different moments in the timestream. Within minutes, the kids returned to when they left after what seemed like three weeks to them. Attacking the kids, Crunchtime showed them their future. Parker saw himself as a grown man standing over a grave, fighting Jane as a teen, and his mother kissing a man, while Zach saw himself using his biofield when he was four, playing chess with Jane, and fighting Ninjak. Finally, Christine saw herself with Carl Sagan when she was five, posing on the cover of a magazine in a bikini as an adult, and her first day in school shortly after the incident. Realizing that Crunchtime was using a device and the power was not naturally his, Christine excelled the machine to push the four of them outside the natural flow of time. Excelling Zach’s biofield, Christine forced Crunchtime’s disparate versions to coalesce, but when that proved too slow she removed the device from his head, which caused the process to speed up and folded him into one point in time garbed in a Troublemaker suit. Using the device, Christine sent Blur and Rebound back to the present, while she returned to the past to change the events of her first day at school. Seeing herself disrespecting Jacinda Monroe, the girl with the locker next to hers, Christine wrestled with stopping herself from offending Jacinda before she humiliated her, but ultimately she decided that, although heartbreaking, the lesson she learned was important and left things be. Getting The Black Box Still in isolation 11 weeks after destroying Zeus: Control, Jane discussed her inability to control her chaos biofield with Dr. Nate Westback, who on her way out left a black box on top of a shelf she claimed contained monitoring equipment inside. Later that day, Zach and Parker watched Jane and her dad through the secured monitors cams, which Parker controlled with his biofield to spy on people throughout the complex. Watching Jane’s dad walking away from his daughter, the boys wondered why he was afraid of her. The next day, Nate posed the question to Jane, who refused to say that her father feared her because when she was young she accidentally gave him a heart attack with her chaos biofield. When Jane asked about the box again, Nate said nothing. Later, Parker read Nate’s log and learned that she was fanning Jane’s curiosity on purpose. The next day, the kids discussed Jane’s situation and Parker brought up Nate’s intent to force Jane to surmount the blocks she had placed on herself, which Christine agreed with, saying that Jane needed to overcome the guilt she felt over her parents divorce. During a session with Nate, Jane asked what was inside the box again, and Nate replied that she was. After the session, Jane climbed a stack of furniture to open the box and she slipped to the floor. Running inside the room, Nate and Mr. Ngo saw Jane crying next to the open box staring at a hideous butterfly cocoon that she believed signified that she was a monster. Hugging her dad, Jane told him what Nate said and that she said she was a monster. Denying that she called her a monster, Nate asked Jane who did, so Jane told them that when her mom left she overheard her say that she was a monster that would never control her powers, and that it was her fault her parents got a divorce. After reassuring Jane that her mom left because of her own problems and not because of her, Jane accepted the fact that she was not to blame and learned to accept her power. Sometime later, as Jane and her dad released the butterfly that came out of the cocoon, she realized that just like it she was beautiful inside. Family Viewing Time Using his biofield to spy on others through the security cameras, Parker decided to watch one person through the course of their entire day, so he followed his mom, who he saw kissing another man, Conner Dixon. Wrestling with what to do, Parker shared his dilemma with Uncle Jack, who told him that it was better to regret the actions one takes wile trying to solve a problem than the ones one does to avoid it. Serendipitously, a malfunctioning relay station in Utah forced the family to spend time together. While Thresher investigated a possible break–in at the station, Parker witnessed first–hand the tension between his parents, then after saving Thresher from a group of RAGE terrorists, he followed Uncle Jack’s advice and finally confronted his parents. Leaving them alone to talk, Parker watched them through a camera, content that he had seen something through to the end. Hero Worship Traveling to Menlo Park Mall to see the live Ninjak stage show with their parents and Nate, Christine and Parker ran into Jacinda and her friends, while Jane and Zach played pranks on people. Joining the crowd, the kids were unaware that Denny Meechum and his friend Town were there, or that the Bellicose brothers, two thugs Jane’s mom hired, were watching them. As the show began, the Bellicose Brothers broke through the stage and announced their intent to fight someone in the crowd. Thinking that they meant him, Denny ran into the men’s room to change into Ninjak, while Christine, who was nervous, ran into the women’s room to pee. Running back out, they collided with each other, then after dispensing with the unnecessary superhero fight, they teamed up to fight the Bellicoses together. Enveloped in an energy field generated by Blur that concealed her identity, Christine used her biofield to excel Ninjak’s abilities. As the fight progressed, the Bellicose got stronger as they absorbed the kinetic energy resultant from Ninjak and Christine’s punches, then when Rebound joined the fray things escalated from there as he only helped them get even stronger. Suddenly, Jesse Rich, a kid from Christine’s school, suggested that they let the Bellicose hit them so they would spend the energy they had absorbed. Enveloped herself and the others within a force field she created using Zach’s biofield, Christine allowed the Bellicose to hit them until they returned to normal. Shedding the shield, Christine used Jane’s biofield to hold the Bellicose until the police arrived. After exchanging emails with Ninjak, the kids left with their parents, completely oblivious to the fact that the idea of how to defeat the Bellicose brothers did not came from Jesse, but that it actually came from Morris Feltzer, an inconspicuous kid working as a hot dog vendor who had been watching them from the moment they arrived. Fear of Falling When a G&G space station broke from orbit, G&G sent XL and Rebound to return it into place. Leaving in a NASA shuttle with Dan Thresher, the kids arrived on the derelict station, where Thresher fell victim to a glowing goo that cut off the shuttle’s thruster systems. Leaving the shuttle with the NASA pilot to pry apart the docking clamps with his biofield, Zach’s fear of falling reminded him of the first time he fell off the G&G building to test his power. Believing that the goo was an intelligent alien life form, Christine forced Zach to go with her inside the station to learn more about it. Attacked by the goo as they made their way into the computer core, the kid’s suits were shredded and their air supply compromised. After discovering that G&G created the goo, Christine passed out. Using his biofield, Zach bounced off the walls and returned her sister to the shuttle, then he released the docking clamps so it could return to Earth. Stuck on the station, Zach built up a g–field backwash that catapulted him back to Earth, and as he fell his fears vanished. After he crashed in the ocean, a G&G chopper took Zach home, unaware that they left a piece of the goo behind in the water. The Coin Toss After receiving an email from her mother, Katherine Desmond, Jane traveled to the Oedipus Building in Princeton Junction. As she went inside, unseen attackers knocked her out. Back in G&G, Barton Fein launched an investigation to find Jane after discovering that the surveillance cameras showed an endless loop of her sleeping in her bed. That morning in school, Christine met Irene Escobar, a new student who offered to let her stay with her in the city so that Christine could hook up with Denny Meechum. During their conversation, Jacinda suggested that Christine imitate the movie Ferris Buller and set up a mannequin and a stereo to make it look like she was in her own bed, which made Christine realize that Parker had tampered with the security cameras. Convincing the others to go with her, Christine, Parker, and Zach followed Jane to the Oedipus Building aboard a trio of RAMCycles. There, Parker used his power to discover that Jane’s attackers had taken her elsewhere. Following their trail to Kwajalein Atoll, the kids broke into the Homogeny Hope facility, where the Rabblerousers immediately attacked them and they learned, much to their surprise, that Jane had joined Katherine’s side to help her eradicate all life on the planet. Controlled Chaos Restrained in pods that canceled their powers, the Troublemakers listened as Katherine explained her plan to destroy all life on Earth and replace it with a homogenous race of her own creation. Offensively calling the Troublemakers and Rabble–rousers product, Katherine left the holding are and returned to her lab. While trying to break his bonds, Zach referred to the Rabble–rousers as kids, which made Cygnet feel a kinship with them. Meanwhile, Jane discovered that Katherine was planning to use her chaos field to create her new life forms. Attacked by Pinto and Cicada, Jane hit back with her chaos field, when then her mother activated a neuro–blocker in her brain that pacified her. That night, Cygnet showed Jane a room filled with creatures created by Katherine kept within stasis pods until Jane’s power could awaken them. The following morning, an enraged Katherine punished Cygnet for showing Jane her creatures. After stopping Katherine, Jane used her Chaos Field to destroy the blockers inside her and freed her friends. Threatening to the facility, Jane, faced with the death of the beings within the pods, could not bring herself to do it. Instead, the kids left the Rabble–rousers to force Katherine to make things right and went home. The Fire Inside While returning home from work, Nate Westback almost ran Christine over with her car. In tears with half her clothes off, Christine begged Nate to take her to her house, where she explained what happened. Earlier that night, Christine’s mom dropped Christine at Jesse Rich’s house, where the kids from school were partying with no adult supervision despite the fact that Christine had told Nate that Jesse’s parents would be there. Christine told Nate that at some point during the party, she and Jesse went to his bedroom, where they kissed and disrobed each other. Ashamed, Christine told Nate that they stopped at second base and nothing more happened, but Nate had her doubts and was sure that something more had happened. Nate took Christine to a teen crisis center where she gave her a small lecture about taking responsibility for her actions and left her with the question of what kind of person she wanted to be, the kind that makes smart decisions for a lifetime or dangerous ones for five minutes of fun. That Monday in school, Jesse approached Christine and asked her if, given how fast things happened between them, she had protection, revealing that they indeed had had sex that night. Ashamed, but not showing it, Christine assured Jesse that he had nothing to worry about, even though she in fact had not used protection. As Jesse walked away, Christine pondered Nate’s question in her mind. A Cure For The Common Cold While at a skateboarding park, Zach met Mark Haskins, a boy with leukemia with little over one hundred days to live. Returning home, Zach asked his parents why they could not cure Mark at Zeus: Control, which led to a debate without a clear–cut answer. The next day, Zach visited Mark and showed him what he could do. Later that day, with Parker and Christine’s help, Zach snuck Mark into G&,G, where he blackmailed Fein with the threat of Mark revealing the existence of Zeus: Control to convince him to use their resources to cure Mark, but ultimately they could not find one due to the extent of his illness. Before Mark left, the Troublemakers let him use Crunchtime’s device to let him experience all the tomorrows that would never come. Accidents Will Happen After Jane discovered that she was out of chocolate milk and that no one else in the complex had any, she and Zach went to the store to buy some with her father’s permission. Meanwhile in school, Irene found Christine in the bathroom taking a pregnancy test which result frightened them both. While on their way to the store, Zach found a copy of the Ninjak #4 comic book lying under a car. Using his biofield, Zach lifted the car up while Jane pulled the comic out, but then as he set it down the car rolled down the hill and crashed into a store. The collision caused a hammer to fall off the counter and create a spark that ignited the gasoline from the car’s punctured gas tank, which set the store ablaze. Using his biofield on the sprinklers to put the fire out, Zach accidentally punctured the pipes behind the store and scared a puppy that grabbed the comic from his hand and ran away. While Zach stayed behind to stop the fire, Jane followed the puppy to a convenience store where she bought a carton of chocolate milk she used to get the puppy to give her the comic back. Rejoining Zach, Jane used her chaos field to divert the out of control water to stop the fires, saving the Laundromat and store. When they came back home, Mr. Ngo asked Jane if she had any problems with her biofield. Answering with a wink to Zach, Jane assured her dad that nothing happened. Untitled At a police precinct in New Brunswick, Detective Ignacio Lopez interrogated Travis Clayburn, a kid accused of shooting Parker Matthews, who claimed that Zach coerced his confession at gunpoint. When Lopez confronted Zach, Zach did not deny shooting Travis. Talking with Christine, Lopez learned that Jacinda had been showing off a gun she found that some kid threw by her house and that Parker was killed while on his way to an arcade with Zach, while Jane told him that after finding out that Jacinda had the gun Zach went to her house and took it. Jane went on to say that Zach found Travis at a warehouse where he confessed that he shot Parker by accident, and that enraged Zach shot Travis. When Lopez asked Jane how it was possible for Zach to have shot Travis when they did not find a second bullet, Jane clammed up instead of reveal that Christine stopped the bullet from killing Travis and they took it with them as they left the warehouse. Hesitant to believe Travis’ outrageous story that three kids surrounded by glowing energy forced him to confess, Lopez charged him with Parker’s murder and let the kids go. Meanwhile, Josh Matthews, Barton, and Uncle Jack stole Parker’s body from the coroner’s office and took him back to G&G, where they placed him inside a chamber. Signs of Things To Come Deep within Inquest, Christine established a biogenic link with Patient #133, a catatonic patient, to help the government gauge his powers. Finding herself in a romantic embrace with #133 amid a battle between Angels and Demons, Christine told her father and the Inquest agents that she had not made contact with the patient, but at his behest she assured them that she could do it. That night, Christine had a nightmare in which #133 revealed that he was the one face of salvation and damnation, the single visage of good and evil. Abruptly waking up, Christine donned her uniform and followed #133’s directions to his cell, where she found him floating within a stasis pod. Reaching out to him, Christine discovered that only she could heal #133’s shattered sanity. Witnessing the events that shattered #133’s mind while she repaired his psych, Christine inadvertently absorbed #133’s uncertainty and rage and she released an explosive force that destroyed the doors to the confinement cell and knocked out everyone standing outside it. The Chrysalis Chamber While Jane helped her father fix a broken computer with her chaos field, she lost control and set off a power surge that threatened the facility. Using her chaos field, Jane stopped the surge, but not before she overheard Joshua say that unless they stopped it he would loose his son. While Blake, angered with Joshua for keeping her away from her son’s body, mailed a package with details of the Troublemakers project to Andrew Chaser at the Newark Star–Ledger, Zach and Jane found Parker’s body within the Chrysalis Chamber, which was close to bringing him back to life. At Inquest, Christine, tainted by #133’s dark side, released her pent-up rage at her father and the others until #133 regained his sanity and stopped her. Finding herself within #133’s mindscape, Christine discovered that the reason she absorbed his darkness with such ease was due to her own feelings of uncertainty caused by the discovery that she could never get pregnant because she was not completely human. Succumbing to the doubt of what she was, Christine returned what she had taken to #133 and awoke to find her father standing over her. Hugging her dad, Christine assured everyone that #133’s intention was to teach everyone to how to love by showing them all what it meant to be human. One Step Beyond Tired of not knowing what their parents did with Parker’s body, Christine, Zach, and Jane trashed Zeus: Control until they told them the truth. Taken to the Chrysalis Chamber, the kids and Blake were astonished to discover that the chamber had accelerated Parker’s biometamorphosis and he was now a being of sentient energy. Enraged, Blake punched Joshua on the face and decided to leave G&G with Parker, but, aware that he would never have a normal life again, he chose to stay. While the kids wondered what would happen to them after they died, Andrew Chaser contacted Katherine Desmond to get the lowdown on G&G. Human Interest Faced with resistance from his editor, who refused to publish his story about G&G unless he met three stipulations (outside confirmation, inside confirmation, and first hand observation), Andrew used Blake and Katherine’s accounts of everyone who ever came into contact with the Troublemakers to meet his challenge. Though possessing documented proof that backed up the most outlandish accounts at the same time as it shed doubt on the firmest denials, Andrew lacked leverage with which to stand up against G&G, so he returned to Blake, who told him how G&G brought her son back to life. Questioning the legality of such an accomplishment, Andrew investigated Parker’s murder and discovered that his supposed killer was still in jail and that a governor’s aide with ties to G&G had ordered a cease to the investigation into the cadaver’s whereabouts. Meeting his editor’s first condition, Andrew went after the other two in one fell swoop by confronting Christine head–on. Pretending to be doing a story on teen celebrities, Andrew interviewed Christine, and during their chat he came to question the morality of what he was doing. Just then, however, G&G threatened him with a cease and desist letter that made him reconsider his dilemma. Meeting with Kenneth Galloway and Harold Galloway, Andrew showed them all the evidence he possessed. Asking him not to run the story, Kenneth and Harold introduced Andrew to the Troublemakers and their families, the people who the story would affect the most. Nevertheless, Andrew ignored their pleas as, enraged by G&G’s gull, he was adamant that he was doing the right thing. That night, an unseen individual connected to G&G gave Andrew a disc that contained the Troublemaker’s psych files, including their dream diaries. Armed with this information, Andrew ran his story. Popularity Contest At a press conference moderated by Lacy Stowe, the Troublemakers and their parents answered questions from varying reporters in a bid to spin doctor Andrew’s revelation of the project in their favor by gaining the public’s sympathy. The next step in Lacy’s plan was for the kids to capture the Bellicose Brothers and deliver them to the cops, a feat they easily accomplished. Lastly, Lacy sent the children – along with a group of reporters – to apprehend a cat burglar in Soho. That night, Ninjak, at the behest of Denny’s sister, stalked out an art gallery to uncover who had been committing the burglaries. Engaging the robber in an alley behind the gallery, Ninjak discovered that the thief was capable of walking through solid surfaces, like walls and the floor. Just then, the reporters and the Troublemakers arrived. Using his powers to create a hologram of the robberies and the fight with Ninjak, Parker deduced that the burglar could only phase his body on location points which he had recently touched, and that since Ninjak interrupted his scouting mission, he was trapped in a predetermined number of spots in the alley. Waiting for the burglar to emerge, the Troublemakers stalked out those spots until he came out next to Zach, who hit him across the head and knocked him out. Smiling for the cameras, Lacy told the reporters that in a world with a growing parahuman problem, the only solution was a positive parahuman role model, like the Troublemakers. When asked how he felt about being a glorified Jackie Chan compared to the kid’s miracles, Ninjak said that anyone who tried to help make society safe should be appreciated, but then Zach called Ninjak’s contributions small, inadvertently belittling him. Upset, Ninjak left, but not before he warned Christine to be aware of the complications that awaited her on the path she had been placed on, and that she should be aware, prepared, and afraid. Simple Lessons Returning to school for the first time since Andrew Chaser broke his story, Christine felt like a deer in the headlights under the scrutiny of the cameras, while elsewhere Jacinda felt offended by G&G’s claims that the Troublemakers were no better than her and her friends despite what they could do. During lunch, Christine wondered why Jacinda hated her and Jesse said that it was because she had everything Jacinda wanted. Just then, Mrs. Sloan, Christine’s math teacher, asked her to help her tutor a student after school. Back at G&G, Zach learned that he would not be able to go to school like Christine, and hid his sadness behind a face of false bravado. Back at school, Christine discovered that Jacinda was the student she was tutoring. Refusing to let Christine teach her, Jacinda lashed out, but eventually Christine convinced her to answer one test question. Much to her surprise, however, Christine discovered that she was unable to find the correct answer without Mrs. Sloan around her, a fact that Jacinda exploited to make her feel miserable. Running away in tears, Christine hid in the bathroom, where Jacinda taunted her for being unable to use her biofield to make her feel good. Tired of Jacinda’s insults, Christine finally confronted her. Telling Jacinda to stop complaining about how rough she had it without trying to make it better, to stop being jealous and force herself to improve, Christine accepted that she needed to work harder on her own abilities. Returning home, Christine acknowledged that she and Jacinda came from two different worlds, and that no matter how much power she had she would never be able to build a bridge between them. While playing basketball in the gym at the G&G building with no one else, Christine wondered how two people who were so different could ever find common ground, unaware that at that moment Jacinda was at home working on her math. For a fleeting moment, what seemed like two different worlds became a display of two parallel lives. For every basket that Christine missed, Jacinda failed to understand a math problem, until, eventually, both girls succeeded at conquering their problems all on their own, one step at a time. To All Things An End… And A Beginning… In the days after the Final Solution, Andrew Chaser went after the story of the final fate of the Troublemakers. Starting with Uncle Jack, Andrew learned of an armored individual who destroyed the G&G building to kill the Rabble–rousers, who though initially escaped with the Troublemakers aboard the KOOLJet, he ultimately caught up to and incinerated. For unknown reasons, the armored man let the Troublemakers live and left. At Jack’s behest, Andrew tracked down the Troublemakers to find something positive to say about them. Finding Christine living in Virginia with her brother after their parents resigned from G&G, Andrew asked her why she gave him the disc with the information that helped him break his story, to which she replied that she was looking at the bigger picture, and that if he saw her brother he would understand what she meant. Seeing Zach playing freebie with his dad, Andrew understood that Christine gave him the disc because she hoped – or knew – that eventually it would lead to their freedom and a chance to have a real life. Category:Troublemakers Category:Independent Properties